It’s called an abuse of power…

Jun 24

jonpeltoBridgeport, Education Reform, Malloy, Paul Vallas, Stefan Pryor , , , 17 Comments

But the real question is why won’t Governor Malloy, Mayor Finch or Malloy’s Education Commissioner, Stefan Pryor, pick up the phone and simply say…”enough, just stop it.”

Tomorrow night, Bridgeport’s illegally appointed Board of Education will vote to extend the contract for Paul Vallas, Bridgeport’s $229,000, part-time, interim Superintendent of Schools.

Vallas’ contract presently runs through December 2012.  He has said that he is willing to stay through June 2013, but the people appointed by the Malloy Administration to oversee Bridgeport’s schools want him to stay until June 2014.

Connecticut’s Supreme Court has ruled that it was illegal for Governor Malloy’s Administration take over Bridgeport’s schools and appoint this group of people to run the school system.  However, since it takes time to hold an election, the Supreme Court said that this illegally appointed board could in place until a democratically elected school board was re-seated.

Bridgeport will have a democratically elected board of education in less than 90 days.

The decision about Vallas’ contract can wait 90 days.

In fact, it is a complete and utter abuse of power for the illegally appointed board to extend Paul Vallas’ contract since the democratically elected board will have plenty of time to consider the issue before his contract runs out in December.

So why rush to lock Vallas’ extended contract into place?

The illegally appointed board is rushing because they are afraid that a board of education, elected by the people of Bridgeport, might decide not to extend Vallas’ contract.

They are so afraid of democracy that they are rushing to sign a long-term, $500,000 plus, contract will Vallas.  With a signed contract, they believe that a democratically elected school board will be less likely to explore hiring someone else since it would have to buy out this new contract, costing taxpayers half a million or more.  This issue comes on top of the problem that taxpayers are already paying over $225,000 to buy out the contract of the former superintendent that this same, illegally appointed board, fired a few months ago.

But stop… Really stop… And think about the motivation behind this incredible abuse of power.

(1)   If Vallas is as good as this board believes he is and is actually having the impact that he says that he is having; the democratically elected board would certainly want to extend his contract, especially since finding another superintendent would take time and money.

(2)   Considering who the candidates that are running for Bridgeport’s new elected Board of Education, it is quite likely that Mayor Finch will have “political control” over the democratically elected board and can successfully persuade them to extend Vallas’ contract if that is the best course of action.

(3)   And, if all else fails, the “deal” between the Malloy Administration and the City of Bridgeport lends Bridgeport $3.4 million in return for Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor, developing a list of UP TO THREE names, with the newly elected board being required to choose one of those names.  It doesn’t say UP TO THREE by accident.  If the democratically elected board doesn’t want to extend Vallas’ contract, if Mayor Finch doesn’t have the power to persuade them to extend Vallas’ contract, then Commissioner Pryor can simply provide the board with the name of his colleague, Paul Vallas, and the democratically elected board will have to hire him (since the illegally appointed board is also voting to accept the state’s $3.4 million dollar deal tomorrow.

So there are at least three ways that the new democratically elected board would extend Vallas’ contract and virtually no way that Vallas could be turned away if Governor Malloy, Mayor Finch and Commissioner Pryor decide that they want him to stay.

So, if the end result is not really in question, why is the board rushing to vote.

Because not only do they fear democracy, not only are they dedicated to undermining democracy, but they simply want to show everyone just how powerful they are.

AND the price for their arrogance is that if the democratically elected board somehow determined that Bridgeport needed to go in another direction, the illegally appointed board’s action will cost Bridgeport and Connecticut taxpayers as much as half a million dollars or more.

If your governor, mayor or other elected official announced that he was going to take a particular action that wasn’t necessary and ran the risk of wasting a half a million dollars in public funds, he’d be defeated so fast he wouldn’t know what hit him.

And yet that is EXACTLY what Bridgeport’s illegally appointed board of education is going to do tomorrow night…UNLESS Governor Malloy, Mayor Finch or Commissioner Pryor pick up the phone and say, “stop, don’t do something that has little to no impact but risks $500,000 of taxpayer funds.

By late Monday night we’ll find out whether Malloy, Finch or Pryor are on the side of the taxpayers or on the side of the illegally appointed, arrogant and temporary board of education.

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  • Castles Burning

    WOW.  Excellent reasoning.  I am in awe.

  • Magister

    Maybe the illegal BOE members want to be in apposition where Vallas owes them a favor?

    • jonpelto

      Sounds like a reasonable explanation. Also the loan deal must have been cut at the highest level and as a backstop just in case and now the illegal board doesn’t know how to back out.
      Imagine being told to do something immoral and then finding out that the “masters” put together a back up plan and didn’t tell you…

      Sent from my BlackBerry please excuss typos

  • Bill Morrison

    Iwonder . . . if the current BoE has been determined to be illegal by Connecticut’s Supreme Court, can their contracts also be considered illegal? Just a thought . . .

    • jonpelto

      Excellent question. My guess is their claim is that since the court left them in place till the elected board takes off, their actions during that time period are legal.
      However, if the court had any idea they would commit to all these long term contracts I don’t think they would have given them that authority.

      Sent from my BlackBerry please excuss typos

  • Gailj2

    Jonathan:  You score comes good points, but in fairness you should have noted for the record that Vallas is a hot property & BOE want to preempt any other city getting him by locking him up. That’s the rush. BUT as you point out Bridgeport taxpayers and voters were not asked.  3 of present appointed board live in Bpt. & are running in Board election Sept 4. As candidates THEY should explain their vote tonight.  And Working Families Party candidates should be speaking on on issues you raise and so should GOP husband-wife candidates.  We want to elect LEADERS to the BOE.  Are these candidates leaders or sheep.  You readers should flush out these eviews on keeping Vallas with a vote tonight

  • jschmidt2

    Doesn’t sound like Democrat Malloy is a friend of the people. Perhaps they should remember this when they vote next time. You get the government you deserve.

    • Linda174

      I can’t imagine he will ever be elected again. How many votes did he win by?

      Count out most, if not all teachers (50,000). Forget state troopers and many state employees. Not sure things would be much better for the working middle class under Foley, but I will never ever vote for our Dear Leader.

  • gawdland1

    Bridgeport Public Schools – “Expect Great Things.”

    “Surprise It’s Bridgeport”
    Bridgeport Test Scores are out

    “For instance, of the 703 students in 11th-grade math none scored at
    goal level or above and only 6 percent were proficient or “basic.”
    Everyone else was below basic.

    “Many teachers say they were never
    told what would be on the tests and heard from students after the fact
    that some of the questions, at least in 11th grade, involved
    trigonometry, something most students had not been exposed to by junior
    year. Overall, more than 9 in 10 high school students scored below basic
    in math on the test.

    “In eighth grade, about three quarters of
    students could add whole numbers and decimals, but few if any could
    estimate solutions to problems.

    “Most fifth-graders knew basic
    math facts, but none could answer the questions that dealt with telling
    time. And most in the lower grades had trouble with estimation.

    Fifth grade and “none could answer the questions that dealt with telling time.” None?

  • gawdland1

     http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Bridgeport-test-scores-show-scope-of-woes-3658950.php

  • WatchandPray

    EVERYONE LISTEN!!  The testing was a ridiculous exercise in foolishness.  How do you test kids on things that they have NEVER SEEN!  Ask any Bpt teacher: much of the tested skills were misplaced by grade.  For example, 11th grade deficits in math were because not all 11th graders have had trigonometry.  The same is true in almost every case.  These are random test questions that are not properly reflective of the curriculum and the scope/sequence of the curriculum for the school year.  

    The new administration has NOT been in contact with any teacher or curriculum personnel to make this test meaningful. Partly because they have gotten rid of them all!!!  Wake up!

    • Linda174

      Gotten rid of what? The tests?

      • WatchandPray

        The personnel.  Close to 30-35 central office personnel were “redistributed” to schools since January.  Some would argue that these position in the central office was the “waste” and excess.  However, with all the different tasks that need to happen throughout the year, these people were critical to the functioning of the school district.  But they were put in other positions.

      • Linda174

        Interesting…my cynical self says he doesn’t want others watching and reporting. Clear out his office and replace with cronies and sycophants who will always agree with him and never report any of his lies and secrets. Who besides the illegal BOE trusts Vallas?

    • Querculus

      Artificially Deflated Bad Scores June 2012 = Claimed Success in June 2013 (when teachers are actually teach what will be tested.)  Instant Educational Victory for Vallas!  See?  They’re really learning!!!

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  • Sue

    When the Bpt BOE and Vallas went into a ‘separate room’ (leaving everybody else cooling our heels outside) to discuss – I suppose – his contract,  John Curtis, the principal of Aquaculture School brought them some pizza.

    Next time I’m bringing enough Kentucky Fried Chicken for those of us (teachers and parents) who are in the ‘out’ group.

    And sending them our check.